1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a recording medium reproducing device and, more particularly, to a recording medium reproducing device such as a CD player which displays a key of a musical composition recorded on a disc by associating a tempo control function with a key control function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when a player called a disc jockey (DJ) plays music, the DJ uses an analog phonograph record and a record player and controls by hand a revolution of the analog phonograph record revolving on a turntable so as to play music such as dance music.
Also, as in the case of using the analog phonograph record to play music, a player such as a DJ uses a CD (Compact Disc) on which music is recorded, varies a tempo and a key (keynote) of the music, plays back a particular phrase repeatedly, mixes favorite phrases, connects musical compositions by using a cross-fader of a mixer and so forth. A recording medium reproducing device with which a player such as a DJ can play original music serves these purposes.
The above-mentioned recording medium reproducing device has a tempo control function whereby a tempo of music and, accordingly, a key of the music are varied, and a key control function whereby only the key of the music is varied. The tempo control function creates a sound effect specific to the analog phonograph record whereby a key of music is varied naturally according to a change of a tempo of the music.
When actually using the tempo control function to vary a tempo of music, a key of the music is varied according to the change of the tempo in a manner that the key gets higher when the tempo is increased and the key gets lower when the tempo is decreased. However, a conventional recording medium reproducing device does not relate a display of a variable width of the tempo control and a display of a variable width of the key control. Therefore, when the tempo is varied by the tempo control, the display of the key control does not change, but displays a key value different from the key of the music being actually played, which is a problem that an accurate display of the key control is not achieved.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide an improved and useful recording medium reproducing device in which device the above-mentioned problems are eliminated.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium reproducing device which device can accurately display a change of a key according to a variable width of a tempo control.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, there is provided according to one aspect of the present invention a recording medium reproducing device which adjusts a tempo and a key of music reproduced from audio data recorded on a recording medium, the device comprising:
means for calculating a variable width of the key according to a varied tempo;
means for adding the variable width of the key to a variable width of the key according to a varied key so as to have a summed variable width of the key; and
means for displaying the summed variable width of the key.
According to the present invention, a variable width of a key according to a varied tempo of music of audio data is calculated. Next, the calculated variable width of the key is added to a variable width of a key according to a varied key. Then, the summed variable width of the key is displayed. This allows for accurately displaying a variable width of a key associated with a variable width of a tempo.